Everyone knows from school curriculum about mammals. Did you know that an egg-laying mammal is a separate animal species that lives only on the territory of one continent - Australia? Let's look at this special kind of animal in more detail.

Discovery of oviparous

For a long time, the existence of animals unique in their kind that breed by incubating eggs was not known. The first message about these creatures came to Europe in the 17th century. At this time, the skin of a marvelous creature with a beak, covered with wool, was brought from Australia. It was a platypus. The alcoholized copy was brought only 100 years later. The fact is that platypuses practically do not tolerate captivity. It is very difficult for them to create conditions during transportation. Therefore, observations of them were carried out only in the natural environment.

Following the discovery of the platypus, news came of another creature with a beak, only now it is covered with needles. This is an echidna. For a long time, scientists argued about which class to classify these two creatures. And they came to the conclusion that the platypus and echidna should be placed in a separate detachment. This is how the detachment One-pass, or cloacal, appeared.

Amazing platypus

A unique creature of its kind, leading a nocturnal lifestyle. The platypus is distributed only in Australia and Tasmania. The animal lives half in the water, that is, it builds holes with access to the water and to land, and also feeds in the water. A creature of small size - up to 40 centimeters. It has, as already mentioned, a duck nose, but at the same time it is soft and covered with skin. Only in appearance it is very similar to a duck. There is also a 15 cm tail, similar to a beaver's tail. The paws are webbed, but at the same time they do not prevent the platypus from walking on the ground and digging holes perfectly.

Since the genitourinary system and intestines exit the animal into one hole, or cloaca, it was assigned to a separate species - cloacae. It is interesting that the platypus, unlike ordinary mammals, swims with the help of its front paws, and the hind legs serve as a rudder. Among other things, let's pay attention to how it reproduces.

Platypus breeding

Interesting fact: before breeding, the animals hibernate for 10 days, and only after that the mating season begins. It lasts almost the entire autumn, from August to November. Platypuses mate in the water, and after a two-week period, the female lays an average of 2 eggs. Males do not participate in the later life of offspring.

The female builds a special hole (up to 15 meters long) with a nest at the end of the tunnel. Lines it with raw leaves and stems to maintain a certain humidity so that the eggs do not dry out. Interestingly, for protection, she also builds a barrier wall 15 centimeters thick.

Only after the preparatory work, she lays eggs in the nest. The platypus incubates eggs by curling up around them. After 10 days, babies are born, naked and blind, like all mammals. The female feeds the babies with milk, which flows from the pores directly through the fur into the grooves and accumulates in them. Babies lick milk and thus feed. Feeding lasts about 4 months, and then the kids learn to get food on their own. It was the method of reproduction that gave this species the name "egg-laying mammal".

extraordinary echidna

Echidna is also an egg-laying mammal. This is a land creature of small size, reaching up to 40 centimeters. It also lives in Australia, Tasmania and the islands of New Guinea. In appearance, this animal looks like a hedgehog, but with a long narrow beak, not exceeding 7.5 centimeters. Interestingly, the echidna has no teeth, and it catches prey with the help of a long sticky tongue.

The body of the echidna is covered on the back and sides with spines, which were formed from coarse wool. Wool covers the belly, head and paws is fully adapted for a certain type of food. It feeds on termites, ants and small insects. She leads a daytime lifestyle, although it is not easy to find her. The fact is that she has a low body temperature, up to 32 degrees, and this does not allow her to endure a decrease or increase in temperature. environment. In this case, the echidna becomes lethargic and rests under trees or hibernates.

Echidna breeding method

Echidna is an egg-laying mammal, but it was only possible to prove this at the beginning of the 21st century. The mating games of echidnas are interesting. There are up to 10 males per female. When she decides she's ready to mate, she lays down on her back. At the same time, males dig a trench around it and begin to fight for supremacy. The one who turned out to be stronger copulates with the female.

Pregnancy lasts up to 28 days and ends with the appearance of one egg, which the female moves to the brood fold. It is still not clear how the female moves the egg into the bag, but after 10 days the baby appears. The cub comes into the world incompletely formed.

Young

The birth of such a baby is very similar to the birth of young marsupials. They also pass their final development in the mother's pouch and leave her as adults, ready for independent life. An interesting fact: marsupials are also common only in Australia.

How does the baby echidna appear? He is blind and naked, his hind limbs are not developed, his eyes are covered with a leathery film, and fingers are formed only on the front paws. It takes a baby 4 hours to get to milk. Interestingly, in the mother's pouch there are 100-150 pores that secrete milk through special hairs. The kid just needs to get to them.

The baby is in the mother's pouch for about 2 months. He gains weight very quickly due to nutritious milk. Echidna's milk is the only one that has a pink color due to a large number it has iron. Feeding continues up to 6.5 months. After the young growth learns to get food on its own.

prochidna

Prochidna is another egg-laying mammal. This creature is much larger than its counterparts. The habitat is the north of New Guinea and the islands of Indonesia. The size of the prochidna is impressive, up to 80 centimeters, while its weight is up to 10 kilograms. It looks like a echidna, but the beak is much longer and the needles are much shorter. She lives in mountainous areas and feeds mostly on worms. The structure of the oral cavity of the prochidna is interesting: her tongue has teeth, and with the help of it she is able not only to chew food, but, as has been noted, even to turn over stones.

This species is the least studied, as it lives in the mountains. But at the same time, it was noticed that the animal does not lose mobility in any weather, does not hibernate and knows how to regulate its own body temperature. Reproduction of egg-laying mammals, to which the prochidna belongs, occurs in the same way as in the other two species. She hatches only one egg, which is placed in a bag on her stomach, and feeds the cub with milk.

Comparative characteristics

Now let's look at the types of mammals that live on the Australian continent. So, what is the difference between oviparous, marsupial and placental mammals? To begin with, it must be said that all mammals feed their offspring with milk. But the birth of babies has huge differences.

Oviparous animals have one thing in common. They lay eggs like birds and incubate them for a certain amount of time. After the birth of the offspring, the mother's body produces milk, which the babies eat. It should be noted that the cubs do not suck milk, but lick it from the grooves on the female's stomach. The absence of nipples distinguishes oviparous from other mammals.

They have a pouch, hence their name. The pouch is located on the abdomen of females. A newborn baby, having reached it, finds a nipple and, as it were, hangs on it. The fact is that babies are born unformed and spend several more months in their mother's pouch until they are fully developed. It must be said that oviparous and marsupial mammals are similar in this respect. Echidna and prochidna babies are also born underdeveloped and placed in a kind of brood fold.

And what can be said about placental mammals? Their babies are born fully formed due to the presence of a placenta in the uterus. Due to it, the process of nutrition and development of the cub takes place. The majority of animals are placental.

Such a variety of species exists on one continent.

Australian echidna- an egg-laying mammal of the echidna family. This is the only representative of the genus of true echidnas.

The Australian echidna was first described in 1792 by the English zoologist George Shaw (who described the platypus a few years later). Shaw mistakenly classified this strange, long-nosed animal caught on an anthill as an anteater. Ten years later, anatomist Edward Home discovered a common feature in echidna and platypus - the cloaca, into which the intestines, ureters and genital tract open. Based on this feature, a detachment of monotremes was singled out.

The Australian echidna is smaller than the prochidna: its usual length is 30-45 cm, weight is from 2.5 to 5 kg. The Tasmanian subspecies is somewhat larger - up to 53 cm. The head of the echidna is covered with coarse hair; the neck is short, almost invisible from the outside. The auricles are not visible. The muzzle of the echidna is elongated into a narrow "beak" 75 mm long, straight or slightly curved.

Like the platypus, the "beak" of the echidna is richly innervated. Its skin contains both mechanoreceptors and special electroreceptor cells; with their help, the echidna picks up weak fluctuations in the electric field that occur when small animals move. Not a single mammal, apart from echidnas and platypuses, has had such an electrolocation organ.

Echidna's limbs are shortened. The fingers are equipped with powerful flat claws, adapted for digging the earth and breaking the walls of termite mounds. In females, after giving birth, a brood pouch appears on the abdomen.

The Australian echidna is found in Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea and the islands in the Bass Strait. Five subspecies are known.

This is a terrestrial animal, although if necessary it is able to swim and cross fairly large bodies of water. Echidna is found in any landscape that provides it with enough food - from wet forests to dry bush and even deserts. It is also found in mountainous areas, where snow lies part of the year, and on agricultural lands, and even in the metropolitan suburbs. The echidna is active mainly during the day, but hot weather makes it switch to a nocturnal lifestyle. Echidna is poorly adapted to heat, since it does not have sweat glands, and its body temperature is very low - 30-32 ° C. In hot or cold weather, it becomes lethargic; with a strong cold snap, it hibernates for up to 4 months. Stocks of subcutaneous fat allow her, if necessary, to starve for a month or more.

Echidna feeds on ants, termites, less often other insects, small mollusks and worms.

Echidna leads a solitary lifestyle (with the exception of the mating season). This is not a territorial animal - echidnas encountered simply ignore each other; it does not suit permanent burrows and nests. For rest, the echidna settles in any convenient place - under the roots, stones, in the hollows of fallen trees. The echidna runs badly. Its main defense is thorns; a disturbed echidna rolls up into a ball, like a hedgehog, and if it has time, it partially burrows into the ground, exposing its back to the enemy with raised needles.

Among the predators that prey on echidnas are Tasmanian devils, as well as cats, foxes and dogs introduced by people. Humans rarely pursue her, as the skin of the echidna is of little value and the meat is not particularly tasty. The sounds that an alarmed echidna makes are reminiscent of soft grunts.

Pregnancy lasts 21-28 days. The female builds a brood burrow, a warm, dry chamber often dug under an empty anthill, termite mound, or even under a pile of garden debris next to human habitation. Usually there is one leathery egg in a clutch.

In nature, the echidna lives up to 16 years; the recorded longevity record at the zoo is 45 years.

The Australian echidna is common in Australia and Tasmania and is not an endangered species. It is less affected by land clearing, since the Australian echidna does not place special requirements on habitats, in addition to sufficient food. The main danger for her is t vehicles and habitat destruction leading to range fragmentation. Animals brought by colonists prey on echidnas.

Echidnas do well in captivity, but do not breed. Get offspring Australian echidna succeeded only in five zoos, but in no case the young animals survived to adulthood.

The Australian echidna is featured on the 5 cent coin and on the $200 commemorative coin issued in Australia in 1992. Millie the Echidna was one of the mascots for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

Mammal, bird or reptile? If you mix their signs and shake it up properly, you get the symbol of Australia. It seems that such an amazing creature cannot survive in real conditions. But the echidna does it perfectly!

Eggs: almost like a bird

The echidna is covered with hair, which means it is a mammal. And all mammals are viviparous - at least scientists were sure of this until 1884, when the Scottish naturalist William Caldwell personally took the egg out of her bag! To do this, he spent many weeks on the banks of the Burnett River, forcing the natives to catch strange animals.

Most likely, fellow scientists would not believe Caldwell, deciding that he overheated in the hot Australian sun. But at the same time as the Scot, evidence that echidnas are absolutely incredible animals was discovered by the curator of the Museum of South Australia, William Haake. While examining the corpse of the echidna, he found an egg inside it. And these were not the remains of an eaten bird or lizard, but an unborn viper.

Echidna eggs are more like reptile eggs

Bag: almost like a kangaroo

The echidna mammal not only lays eggs like a bird or reptile, but also carries its young in a pouch, just like a kangaroo. The bag appears before the egg is laid, and when the baby grows up, it smoothes out and disappears. While the rest of the Australian warmbloods chose what was more profitable - an egg or a bag, the echidna took both.

The cub lives in a bag for a month and a half, until its needles begin to prick. Then the mother digs a hole or builds a nest, transplants the baby there, feeds her for the last time and goes about her business. He comes back in five days, feeds him and leaves again for almost a week. The real mother is echidna. Six months later, she completely stops visiting the cub, and the young animal enters an independent life.

In relation to body size, echidnas have an incredibly developed most "intelligent" part of the brain - the neocortex.

Evolution special way Echidnas and platypuses are the only living representatives of the order of monotremes, or oviparous. This is a specific Australian side branch of evolution. The division into two groups occurred only 25 million years ago. And although the ancestors of the echidna came to land, this beast still swims and dives perfectly, just like the platypus remaining in the water. And just like him, in the "beak" of the echidna there are electroreceptors for spearfishing: they capture the slightest electric fields that are created when the victim's muscles contract. Monotremes are primitive beasts with many reptilian features. Their intestines and bladder open into a special cavity - a cloaca, like a lizard or a crocodile. Monotremes also digest food in the intestines - the stomach serves exclusively for its temporary storage. Oviparous do not have vocal cords, and teeth are destroyed in early childhood.

Australian echidnas live not only in Australia, but also in the south of New Guinea

Milk: almost like a cat

The female echidna produces milk, but does not allow her cub to suck. The animal simply does not have nipples: milk is secreted directly through the skin of the two milk zones in the bag, and the baby licks it off the fur. Echidna tries to keep the cub from starving, and during lactation intensively searches for food - she makes sorties for it. And although the baby increases his weight 60 times in 60 days, he often cannot cope with mommy's meals, and excess milk pours directly into the bag.

Echidna's milk is very nutritious, and any bacteria would multiply with great pleasure in it. Pathogenic microbes are deadly for small echidnas, which are born with an underdeveloped immune system. To prevent trouble, the mother echidna's body has learned to produce special antimicrobial proteins. Experiments by Australian scientists show that they inhibit the growth of even such tenacious bacteria as Staphylococcus aureus. The milk of other mammals also contains protective proteins, but echidnas have a larger set of them and they are much more “vigorous”.

Echidnas have serious enemies - dogs and cars

Strength: almost like a bear

A small echidna is an incredibly strong animal for its size. Her funny paws break anthills like shortbread. And thanks to thick claws, the beast easily destroys termite mounds in order to feast on delicious insects.

And with the help of powerful front paws, the echidna digs shelters superbly. If you put a man with a shovel next to him, the Australian miracle beast will easily overtake him. The burrow is the echidna's favorite way to hide from enemies: dingoes, cats, and foxes. The animal burrows into the ground and curls up so that only sharp thorns stick out. It is almost impossible to get an echidna from such a "dugout".

Longevity: almost like a human

In nature, there is a general rule: the smaller the animal, the shorter its life path. But although the largest echidnas weigh a maximum of 6 kg, in captivity these creatures live up to half a century. Scientists suggest that the secret to the incredible longevity of echidnas is in their slow metabolism, which the animals inherited from their direct reptilian ancestors.

The body temperature of echidnas does not rise above 32 ° C, this is an absolute record among all mammals. But animals also tolerate 28 ° C without any problems - not like people who, when their body temperature changes by a couple of degrees, can only lie in bed and moan. In the cold months, echidnas completely “cool down” to 4 ° C and take a breath once every three minutes. Running and looking for food in this state will not work, so echidnas hibernate.

World's largest fleas found in echidna fur

Sex: like no other

Echidna is a self-sufficient loner and meets another echidna only to make a new echidna. But even here the Australian animals have chosen a special path. The penis of the male is seven centimeters. Twice as big as a gorilla! It is covered with spikes to stimulate the release of the egg and has four heads. True, when mating, the male uses only two, and the remaining ones are pressed, because the female’s vagina is “only” double.

In anticipation of copulation, males line up and follow the female crowd, and she chooses someone to her taste. Then someone else, then another. Males do not leave attempts to mate, even if the chosen one has hibernated: often the echidna wakes up already pregnant. To tame competitors, males have special spurs on their hind legs. For the sake of sex, cold echidnas during the mating season "fire up" by several degrees - this "chip" remained with them from reptiles. Scientists have even hypothesized that warm-bloodedness is the love fever of our reptilian ancestors, which has remained with us forever.

Echidna quills are modified hair

Echidna is an unusual animal even for Australia. A huge number of other living beings choose a niche for themselves and adapt to it. Echidna went the other way: she decided to take everything at once, that is, to adapt to any conditions. And she succeeded: this is the only native Australian animal that managed to occupy the entire continent. Sometimes lack of modesty is a virtue.

Photo: ALAMY /LEGION-MEDIA(X4), MINDEN PICTURES / FOTODOM.RU, ISTOCK, IUCN (INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE). 2017. THE IUCN RED LIST OF THREATENED SPECIES. VERSION 3.1, DIOMEDIA, VMENKOV (CCBY SA 3.0)

Oviparous - belong to the class of mammals, a subclass of cloacae. Among all known vertebrates, monotremes are the most primitive. The squad got its name due to the presence of a special characteristic among the representatives. Oviparous have not yet adapted to live birth and lay eggs to reproduce offspring, and after the babies are born, they feed them with milk.

Biologists believe that monotremes came from reptiles, as an offshoot of a group of mammals, even before the birth of marsupials and placental animals.

Platypus - a representative of egg-laying

The structure of the skeleton of the limbs, the head section, the organs of the circulatory system, the breathing of the first animals and reptiles is similar. In the fossils of the Mesozoic era, the remains of oviparous were found. Monotremes then inhabited the territory of Australia, and later occupied the South American expanses and Antarctica.

To date, the first animals can only be found in Australia and the islands located nearby.

Origin and diversity of mammals. Oviparous and real animals.

The ancestors of mammals are reptiles of the Paleozoic. This fact confirms the similarity in the structure of reptiles and mammals, especially at the stages of embryogenesis.

In the Permian period, a group of theriodonts, the ancestors of modern mammals, was formed. Their teeth were placed in the recesses of the jaw. Most animals possessed a bony palate.

However, the environmental conditions that formed during the Mesozoic era contributed to the development of reptiles and they became the dominant group of animals. But the climate of the Mesozoic soon changed dramatically and the reptiles failed to adapt to the new conditions, and mammals occupied the main niche of the animal world.

The mammal class is divided into 2 subclasses:

• Subclass First Beasts or Single Pass;
• subclass Real animals.

Real animals and monotremes are united by a number of features: a hairy or spiny outer cover, mammary glands, and a hard palate. Also, the first animals have common characteristics with reptiles and birds: the presence of a cloaca, laying eggs, and a similar skeletal structure.

Detachment Single pass - general characteristics

Echidna is a representative of monotremes

Oviparous - animals of small size with a flattened body from top to bottom, short limbs with large claws and a leathery beak. They have small eyes and a short tail. In oviparous, the external auricle is not developed.

Only representatives of the platypus family have teeth and they look like flat plates equipped with protrusions along the edge. The stomach is only for storing food; the intestines are responsible for digesting food. The salivary glands are very developed, large, the stomach passes into the caecum, which, together with the urogenital sinus, flows into the cloaca.

The first animals do not have a real uterus and placenta. Reproduction by laying eggs, there is little yolk in them, and the shell includes keratin. The mammary glands have many ducts that open on the ventral side in special glandular fields, since there are no nipples in monotremes.

Body temperature can vary: it does not rise above 36 ° C, but with a significant cooling it can drop to 25 ° C. Echidnas and platypuses do not make sounds, as they lack vocal cords. The life expectancy of echidnas is about 30 years, platypuses - about 10. They inhabit forests, steppes with shrubs and even occur in mountainous areas (at an altitude of up to 2500m.).

Representatives of oviparous have poisonous glands. On the hind limbs there is a bone spur through which a poisonous secret flows. The poison is potent, in many animals it provokes disruption of vital organs, it is also dangerous for humans - it causes severe pain and extensive swelling at the site of the lesion.

Trapping and hunting for representatives of the detachment is prohibited, as they are listed in the Red Book due to the threat of extinction.

Platypus and Echidna

The platypus and echidna are oviparous, mammals, the only representatives of the order.

A small animal about 30-40 cm long (body), tail up to 15 cm, weighing 2 kg. Males are always larger than females. It lives near water bodies.

Five-fingered limbs are well suited for digging the ground, on the coast, platypuses dig holes for themselves about 10 meters in length, equipping them for later life (one entrance is underwater, the other is a couple of meters above the water level). The head is equipped with a beak, like a duck (hence the name of the animal).

Platypuses are in the water for 10 hours, where they get food: aquatic vegetation, worms, crustaceans and molluscs. Swimming membranes between the toes on the front paws (almost not developed on the hind legs) allow the platypus to swim well and quickly. When the animal dives under water, the eyes and ear openings close, but the platypus can navigate the water through sensitive nerve endings in its beak. He even has electroreception.

Platypuses bear cubs for a month and give offspring from one to three eggs. First, the female incubates them for 10 days, and then feeds them with milk for about 4 months, and at the age of 5 months, the platypuses, already capable of independent life, leave the hole.

Oviparous mammals also include echidna, found in forests appearance looks like a hedgehog. To obtain food, the echidna digs the ground with powerful claws and, with the help of a long and sticky tongue, receives the necessary food (termites, ants).

The body is covered with spines that protect it from predators; when danger approaches, the echidna curls up into a ball and becomes inaccessible to enemies. The female weighs approximately 5kg and lays an egg weighing 2g. Echidna hides the egg in a bag formed by a leathery fold in the abdominal region and wears it, heating it with its warmth, for two weeks. A newborn cub is born with a mass of 0.5 g, continues to live in the mother's pouch, where it is fed with milk.

After 1.5 months, the echidna leaves the pouch, but continues to live in a hole under the protection of its mother. After 7-8 months, the baby is already able to find food on its own and differs from the adult only in size.

Australian echidna- an egg-laying mammal of the echidna family. This is the only representative of the genus of true echidnas.

The Australian echidna was first described in 1792 by the English zoologist George Shaw (who described the platypus a few years later). Shaw mistakenly classified this strange, long-nosed animal caught on an anthill as an anteater. Ten years later, anatomist Edward Home discovered a common feature in echidna and platypus - the cloaca, into which the intestines, ureters and genital tract open. Based on this feature, a detachment of monotremes was singled out.

The Australian echidna is smaller than the prochidna: its usual length is 30-45 cm, weight is from 2.5 to 5 kg. The Tasmanian subspecies is somewhat larger - up to 53 cm. The head of the echidna is covered with coarse hair; the neck is short, almost invisible from the outside. The auricles are not visible. The muzzle of the echidna is elongated into a narrow "beak" 75 mm long, straight or slightly curved.

Like the platypus, the "beak" of the echidna is richly innervated. Its skin contains both mechanoreceptors and special electroreceptor cells; with their help, the echidna picks up weak fluctuations in the electric field that occur when small animals move. Not a single mammal, apart from echidnas and platypuses, has had such an electrolocation organ.

Echidna's limbs are shortened. The fingers are equipped with powerful flat claws, adapted for digging the earth and breaking the walls of termite mounds. In females, after giving birth, a brood pouch appears on the abdomen.

The Australian echidna is found in Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea and the islands in the Bass Strait. Five subspecies are known.

This is a terrestrial animal, although if necessary it is able to swim and cross fairly large bodies of water. Echidna is found in any landscape that provides it with enough food - from wet forests to dry bush and even deserts. It is also found in mountainous areas, where snow lies part of the year, and on agricultural lands, and even in the metropolitan suburbs. The echidna is active mainly during the day, but hot weather makes it switch to a nocturnal lifestyle. Echidna is poorly adapted to the heat, because it does not have sweat glands, and the body temperature is very low - 30-32 ° C. In hot or cold weather, it becomes lethargic; with a strong cold snap, it hibernates for up to 4 months. Stocks of subcutaneous fat allow her, if necessary, to starve for a month or more.

Echidna feeds on ants, termites, less often other insects, small mollusks and worms.

Echidna leads a solitary lifestyle (with the exception of the mating season). This is not a territorial animal - echidnas encountered simply ignore each other; it does not suit permanent burrows and nests. For rest, the echidna settles in any convenient place - under the roots, stones, in the hollows of fallen trees. The echidna runs badly. Its main defense is thorns; a disturbed echidna rolls up into a ball, like a hedgehog, and if it has time, it partially burrows into the ground, exposing its back to the enemy with raised needles.

Among the predators that prey on echidnas are Tasmanian devils, as well as cats, foxes and dogs introduced by people. Humans rarely pursue her, as the skin of the echidna is of little value and the meat is not particularly tasty. The sounds that an alarmed echidna makes are reminiscent of soft grunts.

Pregnancy lasts 21-28 days. The female builds a brood burrow, a warm, dry chamber often dug under an empty anthill, termite mound, or even under a pile of garden debris next to human habitation. Usually there is one leathery egg in a clutch.

In nature, the echidna lives up to 16 years; the recorded longevity record at the zoo is 45 years.

The Australian echidna is common in Australia and Tasmania and is not an endangered species. It is less affected by land clearing, since the Australian echidna does not place special requirements on habitats, in addition to sufficient food. The main danger for it is transport and habitat destruction, leading to habitat fragmentation. Animals brought by colonists prey on echidnas.

Echidnas do well in captivity, but do not breed. Only five zoos managed to get the offspring of the Australian echidna, but in no case did the young grow to adulthood.

The Australian echidna is featured on the 5 cent coin and on the $200 commemorative coin issued in Australia in 1992. Millie the Echidna was one of the mascots for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

See information about other representatives of the fauna of Australia, among which the only Australian marsupial, leading an underground lifestyle -